Abstract
This work provides a platform to predict metal encapsulation atop the surface of graphite. The authors show a linear scaling between the optimal encapsulation temperature and the metal's cohesive energy; and use density functional theory to validate their experiments.
Highlights
Many applications of solid metals—as catalysts, magnets, sensors, heat sinks, or electrodes, to name a few—are most efficient and cost effective when the surface-to-volume ratio of the metal is high
The question naturally emerges, which metals can be encapsulated at the surface of graphite? We have found that transition metals Cu, Ru, and Fe, as well as the rare earth Dy, can be embedded, provided two conditions are met in synthesizing the metal-plus-graphite surface system [7,8,9,10]
Using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), we have shown that Pt clusters can be embedded beneath the surface of graphite, whereas Ag and
Summary
Many applications of solid metals—as catalysts, magnets, sensors, heat sinks, or electrodes, to name a few—are most efficient and cost effective when the surface-to-volume ratio of the metal is high. We have reported that high surface-to-volume ratios in metals can be achieved by encapsulating metal nanoclusters at the surface of a layered material, graphite. Defects must be created on the clean graphite surface, to provide entry portals for the metal [11]. We achieve this by ion sputtering with argon. Metal must be deposited on the defect-rich graphite surface at elevated temperature, rather than being deposited at low temperature and heated.
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